Thomas Coyle© Photo Healy Racing
I'm from a little village in Co Meath called Batterstown. I didn't have a background in horses, but my father had a farm and we always had a pony. I thought I was AP McCoy riding the pony around the place! My granny had a great passion for horses even though she never worked with them. She would always have a bet and we would go down to watch Channel 4 Racing on a Saturday when we were younger. From watching it with her, I kind of always said I wanted to be a jockey.
I only worked for one man in the industry, Eddie Cawley. Eddie is from the same village as I am, he's only two miles up the road from me. I had just started secondary school when I went into Eddie on a Saturday and on summer holidays. When I finished my Leaving Cert, it turned into a full-time job. At 18 I went in to ride out and muck out, and did all the jobs. At that time Eddie still had some showjumpers, but it was the racing that attracted me. I got my amateur licence for him and ended up riding eight point-to-point winners for Eddie. I rode five winners on No Discount (in 2006 and 2007), he was a stalwart of a horse. Weight got a hold of me, I didn't ride for that long. I put my head down in Eddie's and we had a few good seasons. I ended up being assistant trainer for many years.
I had a few horses at home at the time and all of a sudden four or five became 10 here. When racing got back going after Covid-19 and Eddie asked if I was ready to come back, I said I couldn't really leave a yard full of horses for the morning. I kind of took the leap then and started out on our own. I had been doing my three horses at lunchtime while working in Eddie's. A couple of lads would come back from Eddie's and ride them out. I left Eddie's on good terms, he is still very good to me. If I ever need to work a horse I can jump in behind in the lot. A few months ago, I actually sold Eddie the horse Ataboycharlie that won in Leopardstown, he bought the horse off me during the summer. We actually had a runner on St Stephen's Day and Eddie said to come into the ring and we did a bit of celebrating with him. That's the first horse I have sold him. We always thought he was decent so it was nice that it worked out.
It was either give this a go or stay as an assistant trainer because horses are all I know really. We had the farm at home, so we took the plunge. My grandfather would have bought the land in Batterstown many, many moons ago. My father, Paul Coyle, farmed it for a little while then he rented it out for a bit because he was working full-time. He said for me to do whatever I needed to do on the land. My father is a massive part of the team. I had taken my licence out in 2015 and my first runner was a winner - Dunroe Boy in a handicap hurdle at Kilbeggan (June 2015). Emmet Mullins and I did the trainers course together and there was a big rush on because it was the summer break. We both had horses to run on the Friday night in Kilbeggan and, fair play to the Turf Club, they got everything sorted for us. We both got to have a runner and we both got a winner the same night. It couldn't have started any better really. It was a bit surreal. When you watch the race back, it did not look like he was going to win. I think it even caught the commentator by surprise. I was still full-time in Eddie's at the time. I had trained a couple of point-to-point winners before we had taken the licence out, so from there we got another few horses. We probably didn't have a good calibre of horses, we were probably buying cheap horses or horses that would come over cheaply. We didn't really kick on from that until kind of last year.
Dunroe Boy (right) provided Thomas with his first winner© Photo Healy Racing
We have 15 stables and a four-horse walker, we have a 30-metre diameter lunge ring and we have a just over two-furlong Wexford Sand gallop. We have new look hurdles at home as well. We are very lucky where we are situated - Skyrne is literally 10 minutes down the road. It is a great gallop to have on our doorstep. At the minute we have five or six to run in the new year and we do a bit of pre-training for John McConnell, so we have four or five for John the whole time. John has been great for us and is a great supporter. If it wasn't for John and the pre-trainers, you couldn't keep it all going to be honest. We are very grateful to John, he has given us some great business.
We would hope at some stage that the 15 could be our own for racing. I enjoy being a dual-purpose trainer. I was a point-to-point man and, as everybody knows, Eddie is all National Hunt but I have really enjoyed training a few Flat horses. I am kind of hoping to go a little bit more to the Flat. We had a good season last year - Manhattan Dandy won twice for us and Morning Logic won for us. We only had two other horses - Selective Power that we bought out of Eddie Lynam's and It Might Be You. We have ended up getting a couple more and a better calibre of horse. We are really looking forward to this Flat season and we are hoping to get at least five winners next year and keep building like that.
Manhattan Dandy used to get a lot of stick for not winning and it was my partner who actually got us the horse. We were actually going to buy him off the syndicate for small money just to have something else running really. The syndicate were very good and said they would give him six months with us. He was placed a few times, but we knew his work at home was very good, so it was quite sweet when he won in Roscommon and Bellewstown because my partner, Philippa Scott, does a lot of the groundwork. She does a lot of Flat work with him and the other horses as well. It is another variant that we have put into training that we try and do a Flat work day with everything when it suits. He will get a stint on the all-weather in the new year. I let him out after he ran at Galway in October. He didn't disgrace himself in the run there, but it was probably a long year. He is back in about three weeks now so the plan would be to try and get him a couple of runs in Dundalk because he is rated 7lb lower than his turf mark. It is definitely something that we might exploit. That syndicate, Little Acorns, are very good. They have bought another horse, a filly called Lakewood. She ran in a couple of Listed races and a lot of maidens (for Michael O'Callaghan), so hopefully we can sweeten her up. She is a nice filly at home, so we are looking forward to her. She should start at the end of February. She was placed in a maiden up on Dundalk, so she will start there and might progress to go hurdling in the summer.
There's a 50-80 handicap in Dundalk next Friday and Morning Logic will get an entry for that. If he could win again, or if he was second, we might have a look at maybe the All-Weather Championships in Lingfield on Good Friday. I really do think he is a good horse - I don't think people have seen what he can actually do. He was very unlucky in his bumper first-time out (Killarney, May 21), the horse that won it (Judicial Law) has ended up winning five for Jonjo O'Neill. His pedigree would suggest he would like the all-weather but I think the surface up there in Dundalk has really brought out the best in him the last day when he won in December. I feel that he could improve an awful lot from that run. He is exciting at the minute. When I looked back on it, I will have to try and exploit his hurdle mark of 101 if he is going to be an 80/85 rated Flat horse. Chasing is really his game though, he is a gorgeous big 16.2/16.3hh horse and looks like a chaser. He does jump well, generally. He was probably unlucky at Tipperary in July when he came to challenge and walked through the last before finishing sixth, but he was only beaten just over five lengths. Ben (Harvey) thought he was going to win when he came with his challenge.
We've got a nice bunch of horses, so at the minute it is about trying to get winners. If you get winners, people start noticing you. We do have a small team, but people did start to notice that every horse was winning or being placed and my partner won about 10 best-turned out this year from about 25 runners. Our horses always looked well and people were commenting on how well they looked. When the horses are looking well, people take notice of you to start with. If you can get the results with that as well, it definitely helps. I love the racing industry, I've worked in racing since I was a young age. Everybody helps everyone and you make some friends for life. It is a great community to be part of and long may we keep being a part of it.
Thomas was in conversation with Michael Graham
